A Crappie Day Fishing

Thank goodness it has rained as much as it has the last week.  I could see the effect when I went fishing today.  The water level in this pond was a good foot higher than when I last walked it a few months ago.

I met my friend Monique to fish a pond that her neighbor, fellow DuPage Angler member Pwoody had good luck in.  Any pond that you hear has good size largemouth and crappie makes you go fish it at least a few times.  I had done that and only scored a bluegill and a tiny largemouth in all the time I had spent at this pond.  Still my hopes were high that we'd catch crappie as the weather has begun the slide from cool to cold and that's when crappies can turn on and feed.

Our first casts were with bass in mind.  We both had swimjigs with Big Hammer swimbait trailers.  This is a combination I've grown to love as it produces good hits when bass are willing.  Today they weren't willing.

Since science hasn't figured out a way to force fish to bite yet I decided to change course and switch to an ultra-light rod rigged up with a slip-float and a tungsten ice jig tipped with wax worms (waxies).

My first cast my float went down slowly, I got excited at what I knew to be a crappie bite and set the hook into nothing.  I set too early.  Reeling in and checking my waxies to be sure I still had them I cast my float right to the same spot I missed the fish in and sure enough the float slowly went down.  A short hook-set later I caught a black crappie!

It was about palm sized and decently thick.  If this was a lake with a creel limit I don't think this would have been a keeper.  I was fine letting it go to grow bigger.

I set up another ultra-light the same way for Monique and she was catching bluegill after bluegill.  Come to think of it I was too.  There was only the one crappie that bit.  Well since crappie school and roam an area I figured we should walk the shoreline a ways and try our luck at a different spot.

I quickly pulled in a small bluegill when Monique said what she had on felt heavy.  I turned and saw the fish flop in the water.  I only saw it's back but thought it was probably a largemouth bass.

I was wrong!  Monique caught the second crappie of the day.  It was the biggest crappie I had ever  had the pleasure of lipping.

After I stopped saying, "Holy sh#t that's a nice crappie" over and over I handed the fish to Monique for the picture with her catch.  Then I got out my Boga and weighed the fish.  2 1/4 pounds!!!  I've heard of bigger crappie being caught in southern lakes but I've never actually SEEN one before.

Plenty more bluegills were caught and released but we didn't catch another crappie and not one bass.  The best part is we didn't care.  We were both excited by that thick, black-speckled, slab of a crappie Monique had hooked and landed.

Fishing in the colder months of the soft-water season can be hit or miss.  The weather may be nice and the bite is off or the bite should be on but the weather is lousy.  Today was a Crappie Day of Fishing with blue-gill skies and temperatures in the 40s.  

Soon the water will be hard and this blog will take the turn to hard-water fishing.  Until then I hope to have many more crappie days fishing!

Ben Can Catch

Talks about fishing Sunday looked like they were going to fall apart.  Schedules didn't synchronize and thus Dave's two boys would have been home alone while we were out wading.  That wouldn't have been right so what to do on Sunday morning.  The idea hit me while I was running errands on Saturday.  The almost immediate call from Dave meant he thought it too; take his boys out fishing.

We didn't need to get up at O'Dark-thirty since we were fishing for Bluegills.  At nine AM both Zack and Ben looked like it was O'Dark-thirty.  They were up but didn't look completely awake; I can relate some days.

Dave and I tied on slip floats, hooks, and split-shot to one of Dave's rods and the boy's two Zebco 202s then loaded kids and gear into the car and headed for a local pond.

The bluegill action wasn't fast and furious but some largemouth were eating Dave's 4" Yum Dinger plastic worm.  Two bass in quick succession ate the watermelon colored stick worm.  While the boys were watching the bass their father was catching Ben's float went down and stayed there awhile.  Once it was noticed we couldn't see Ben's float as much slack was reeled out of the line as the 202 could muster but the circle hook didn't find home and the float returned to the surface without a worm.

We rotated around the pond and I started catching bass about two and a half feet down near the shore.  That was when Ben started yelling Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

This time he was watching when his float went down.  Ben knew that he was to watch for it to go down but once the float was down the excitement in his brain didn't let him comprehend what to do next.

"Reel Ben!" instructed Dave.

Reeling like a madman the Zebco Spincast reel caught the line.  The crazed reeling of a six year old finally got the line tight and the circle hook found lip.

After removing the fish and baiting the hook Ben was that much more ready to have the worm cast to the middle of the pond.  Once again he was a patient bobber-watcher until the now familiar chorus of Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy occurred when his float went down again.

This time Dave, Zack, and I all said in unison:  REEL BEN!!!  

Bluegill number two proved to be the patience breaker for Ben.  He was excited to catch fish but his bobber-watching patience had ended.  

We got our gear together and walked the short walk back to the cars.  I learned a few things from our outing yesterday; Ben takes direction well and very literally sometimes, Zack can hit me in the neck with Crab Apples from ten paces, and Ben Can Catch!